April 20, 1966
Jocie Brooke here reporting from Hollyhill, Kentucky. I like April. Do you like April? You can count how much more there is of school by weeks instead of months. You can forget about coats most of the time. You can see everything turn green. You can play out in the rain because sometimes it just showers down without thunder and lightning. It's sort of like going swimming standing up.
Spring flowers start blooming. Bright colored flowers like tulips. They always make me remember Mama Mae who died planting tulips. But she wouldn't want me to hold that against the tulips. She loved flowers. All kinds of flowers.
In April, she especially loved the dogwood trees when they bloomed. She told me the legend of the dogwood. She said it might not be exactly true and Dad said the same. He said the Bible doesn't have anything about the dogwood tree. Nothing at all. But that doesn't mean the Lord didn't plan the dogwood tree to remind us of what Jesus did for us.
Anyway, here's the poem Mama Mae read to me a long time ago. She said nobody knew who wrote it.
In Jesus' time, the dogwood grew
To a stately size and a lovely hue.
'Twas strong and firm, its branches interwoven.
For the cross of Christ its timbers were chosen.
Seeing the distress at this use of their wood
Christ made a promise which still holds good:
"Never again shall the dogwood grow
Large enough to be used so.
Slender and twisted, it shall be
With blossoms like the cross for all to see.
As blood stains the petals marked in brown,
The blossom's center wears a thorny crown.
All who see it will remember Me
Crucified on a cross from the dogwood tree.
Cherished and protected, this tree shall be
A reminder to all of My agony."
So whenever I look at the dogwood blooms, I see what the poem says. The bloodstains on the edges of the four petals and the notches that look like they could have been made by nails. Then the middle part with red berries that could be a crown of thorns marked with blood. Whether the legend is true or not it's still a good story to think about in April when the trees bloom. Mama Mae said it added to their beauty and now that I'm older, I know what she means. Had you ever heard the dogwood legend? Do you like the dogwood trees?
On to the next episode of Bailey's Bug. Are you ready? Do you like Bailey and Lucinda and Skelley?
BAILEY'S BUG by Jocie Brooke
(Continued from last week)
Chapter 14
Bailey practiced how he might tell Lucinda about the hum while he waited for her to come back from hunting. Maybe he could simply say the bug crawled out of his ear. That could happen, couldn't it? He would scrunch down on his belly and tell her how sorry he was for getting her out here in the middle of nowhere. He'd beg her to pounce on him, bite his ears, scratch his nose or do whatever she wanted to if it made her feel better. He deserved it leading her out here where she had to hunt mice and climb trees to get away from coyotes.
He aimed to just blurt it out the minute she came back, but when she stepped out of the night in front of him, he lost his courage. Instead, he shut his eyes and pretended to be asleep. Too asleep to even notice when she put a mouse down right in front of his nose.
The next morning, the mouse was still there. Bailey tried to give it to Skelley, but the old dog shook his head and told Bailey to eat it. So he gobbled it down. It wasn't much but it was something. Would he ever see a full food dish again?
Maybe he would be like Skelley and spend all his time raiding garbage cans and saving bones that didn't have even one good chew left on them. How would he look with bones sticking out in angles like Skelley's?
Bones were already in plain sight on his sides in spite of the way his hair had gotten bushy with nobody to trim it off. He was a funny mud color too and didn't look much like the dog that had run away from Mr. Robinson.
He didn't feel much like that dog either. That dog didn't think of much other than food dishes and fetching for Reid. This dog he was now had to worry about getting Lucinda and Skelley lost or worse and whether he'd ever see Reid again.
Lucinda hopped down out of the tree. "Time to be on our way."
Thick fog hid everything except the trunks of the trees nearest them. No hint of the sun pushed through it. He couldn't go without seeing which way the sun was shining.
"Maybe we should let Skelley rest a while longer. So his leg can get better." The sun would surely show up in a little while.
"For a truth, Miss Lucinda, I'm not sure if I can walk on it," Skelley said. "And I'm a wee bit too tired to hop along on me other three feet."
"We'll go slow," Lucinda said.
"No, no, Miss Lucinda. I'll not be slowing the two of you down. Twill be better for ye to leave me here and go on your way."
"We can't leave you here alone," Bailey protested.
"And we won't." There was no doubt in Lucinda's voice.
"But you can't stay," Skelley started.
Lucinda interrupted him. "Let me finish. I'll stay here with you while Bailey goes on to find Reid. Then he can bring him back with him. People know about fixing hurt legs and such."
Skelley settled his sad eyes on Bailey. He was waiting for him to tell Lucinda about the hum, but Bailey just pulled his tongue up in his mouth and didn't say anything.
Lucinda went on. "We've gone miles and miles. Too many to count. We have to be in another state. Close to Reid. Your bug says so, doesn't it, Bailey?"
Bailey stared out toward the fog as though he were hearing something in the gray mist. He should tell Lucinda about losing the hum. He should. But the words wouldn't come out of his throat.
Instead he kept his eyes on the farthest tree he could see in the fog. "It can't be far."
Lucinda sighed. "Heaven knows, you've been saying that every day since we left, but maybe this time you'll be right."
When Bailey didn't move, she nudged him with her paw. "Well, what are you waiting for? Go get Reid. Now."
"I'll find him." Bailey tried to sound like he meant it as he skipped his eyes over Lucinda and Skelley and headed out into the fog. He had no idea which way to go. One way was as good as another until he got out of sight of Lucinda.
"It was a grand adventure, Bailey me lad," Skelley called after him. "A grand adventure."
(To be Continued next week. Remember, the first part of the story is up under the title at the top of my report.)
April 13, 1966
Jocie Brooke here reporting from Hollyhill, Kentucky. Not a lot to report today. Well, Dad says every day holds its own special blessings. Didn't the sun come up today, he'll ask me. If I say of course it did, he'll tell me that some things shouldn't be taken for granted. That the sunrise every morning is blessing. When he was serving on that submarine in World War II, he went weeks without seeing a sunrise. He says you can't imagine how amazing and special the sunrise is until you haven't seen it for a while.
I like the sunrise. I see it every morning on the way to school. Nobody would be so silly as to say they didn't like the sunrise. That means the gift of another day. But there are days when I'd like to pull the covers up over my head and skip the actual sunrise. I could always get caught up on the sunshine later in the day.
Aunt Love says sunrises like the one in the picture I took means bad weather's on the way. "Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning." Dad says they say sailors instead of farmers or grocers because sailors are out there on the sea where storms can dash their boats into the waves and capsize them. Like that story in the Bible where the storm is lashing the boat that Jesus and the disciples are in. Jesus is sleeping through the storm and some of the disciples go back and wake him up. Do you think they had to shake him or just speak his name?
Guess that part doesn't matter. But they ask him if he doesn't care if their boat sinks and they all drown. You see, they know he could do something about it. They're not exactly prepared for what he does do, but they knew who to go to for help. Dad says that's a lesson for us. To know who to go to for help. But anyway, Jesus tells the storm to be still and it is. That threw the disciples for another loop. They weren't prepared for anything that awesome. Dad says the sunrise every morning felt that awesome for him for a while after he came home for the war. Seeing the sun. Being alive to see the sun. So I'll be glad for the sun.
I think Bailey and Lucinda and Skelley will be glad for the sun after their rough time with the storm in the story. Wonder what's going to happen next. Here goes.
Bailey's Bug by Jocie Brooke
(Continued from last week. Remember, you can read it all so far under the title up at the top of this report.)
It was full dark when they reached the trees, and once they'd settled Skelley into a leafy bed, Lucinda went hunting. She disappeared almost immediately into the night. How many other things were stalking unseen in the darkness?
Bailey shivered and went over to lay next to Skelley who was shivering even worse. Bailey's shivering slowed and stopped, but the old dog's shaking seemed to come from deep inside him with nothing to do with the cool air.
"I'm sorry about your master's baton," Bailey said.
"'Tis a sadness for a truth, lad." Skelley sighed. "It's taken the music with it."
"The music?"
"Aye, the music. Ye know I could always hear that music and fine music it was. Circus music. No matter what else happened, no matter whether there was food or not, I heard the music and was ready for the show to go on."
Skelley raised his head to stare out into the night as if listening for a new burst of music. For a moment he even stopped shaking. But then he dropped his head back down on his paws and his old bones began quaking again.
"I miss the music."
"It'll come back, Skelley. You're tired. In the morning, the music will be back."
"I hope so, lad." Skelley didn't sound as if he thought it possible. "I don't think I can go on with the adventure without the music."
Bailey shifted uneasily as though he'd just felt a rock under him. Talking about Skelley's music reminded him that he still couldn't hear the hum. The water was out of his ears. The storm was long gone but no hum was vibrating inside his head.
"Skelley," he said after a moment. "Do you know which way the sun comes up?"
"Aye, lad. it's in the east, but I need some sign of it shining to point the way." He looked up at the sky. "Me master could do it, night or day. He knew the stars that pointed the way, but I never could make out which ones he said mattered the most."
Bailey stared up through the trees to the sky. He saw stars, but none that helped him know which way to go.
The night was suddenly so silent that Bailey wanted to jump up and bark just so there would be some noise somewhere. But he made himself lay still. If Lucinda heard him barking, she'd run back to see what was wrong. Then what would he tell her?
He thought maybe Skelley was asleep, but then the old dog said, "Ye've lost what Miss Lucinda calls your bug, haven't ye, lad?"
Bailey perked up his ears and started to pretend. But what good would that do? He dropped his nose down on Skelley's bony back. "I'm afraid so. It wasn't a bug. It was a hum right in the middle of my head. Now it's gone."
He waited for Skelley to tell him the hum would come back, that he just needed a bit of rest. Bailey wanted the old dog to say that, but he didn't.
Instead the old dog said, "Miss Lucinda's going to be a mite upset when you tell her, but tell her you must, lad. And soon."
(To be continued)
April 6, 1966
Jocie Brooke here reporting from Hollyhill, Kentucky. Do you like basketball? We're big basketball fans at our house. Well, all except Tabitha who thinks watching boys bounce balls up and down a gym floor is about as boring as watching paint dry. I think she's crazy. Basketball is THE sport to watch. In fact, I'm teaching Stephen how to dribble a basketball. He may not be two yet, but he's catching on. A star in the making. Dad will be putting him up a basketball goal on the side of the garage before you know it.
Even Aunt Love likes basketball. Every time there's a game on television, she's glued to the set. She can even remember the score. Her forgetfulness goes on hold when she's watching the games or listening to them on the radio.
That's how it is here in Kentucky. Basketball is the sport. But Tabitha moved around with our mother all those years and never had time to really get behind a team. Not even UCLA out in California. But in Kentucky, we get behind our Wildcats. We thought sure they were going to win it all this year. But they ran into a better team. At least that's what Dad said. Texas Western. They were tall and our guys couldn't shoot over them. We ended up shooting something like 38 percent. That's not too good in basketball. You hit 380 in baseball, you're pretty good, but you've got to hit 50 percent of your shots in basketball to be any good. Sigh.
Everybody in Hollyhill has been depressed ever since the game a couple of weeks ago. You just look at the guys on the bench in the picture that was in the paper. Sad times. You don't get a chance to win the championship every year. Well, unless you're UCLA. They seem to be there a lot. But it's been eight years since Kentucky has brought home the trophy. I don't remember that. I was just a little kid then. So we had high hopes this year. Sigh.
The newspapers all made a big deal about Texas Western beating Kentucky because their starting lineup was all black players and Kentucky didn't have any black players on the team. I understand what they are saying. Noah, who works for Dad sometimes, has made me see what discrimination is like, but I didn't think about black and white in the game. I just wanted our team to win. Sigh.
But Dad says it's just a game and there are lots more important things in life than who wins a ballgame. Especially when you're just on the sidelines watching and not on the team. But it would have been more fun if our team had won. Sigh.
When I left Bailey and Skelley last week, Skelley had just lost his painted stick and was feeling really sad too. Guess I'd better see what happens next.
BAILEY'S BUG by Jocie Brooke
(Continued from last report. The full story under the Bailey's Bug report heading up top of the page.)
"What's gone?" Lucinda raised her head up to look at Skelley.
"I dropped me master's baton in the water." Skelley's voice was so low Bailey could barely make out his words.
"Where?" Lucinda's ear perked up and she looked more like her old self in spite of the way her fur was sticking out in odd angles.
"Out there." Skelley stared at the water and then dropped his nose back toward the ground. "For a truth, it's gone forever."
"I tried to find it." Bailey's ears drooped down. "I really did."
"He did, Miss Lucinda. But some things can't be found."
Lucinda looked at the water again and then back at the old dog. "I'm sorry about your baton, Skelley."
"Don't fret yourself about it, Miss Lucinda. Twas silly me packing it here and there all this time anyway, but it somehow kept me master with me."
"He'll still be with you," Lucinda said softly.
"Aye, I suppose," the old dog said without much conviction.
Lucinda moved over right in front of Skelley's nose. "I thank you, Skelley, for pulling me out of the water. You're a remarkable dog like none I've every known before or ever expect to know in the future." She touched his face with her paw.
"And ye be a fine feline, Miss Lucinda. Me old stick was just that. An old stick."
Skelley tried to sound as though he meant it, but his eyes were so sad that Bailey wanted to dive back into the rushing water to hunt for the stick again.
Lucinda noticed Bailey looking at the water. "Let's get away from here. I hate water. Please tell me we're on the right side of this river."
"The right side?" Bailey cocked his head to look at Lucinda.
"The one your bug says is right."
"Oh, the right side. Yes, the right side." Bailey stood up, shook some more water out of his coat and started away from the stream. He had no idea which way to go for even though it had stopped raining at last the sun was hiding behind thick clouds.
In fact, it looked near night. They needed a safe place to rest. Somewhere they didn't have to worry about coyotes surrounding them. Someplace where he could get the water out of his ears so that maybe the hum would come back.
Bailey stopped on a little rise. Ahead was a line of trees where there would be some bushes for him and Skelley to hide and trees for Lucinda to climb. Maybe they could find some acorns or berries or bugs to eat.
He thought of rabbits, and his mouth started watering. He pushed the thought away. Even when his legs weren't feeling so rubbery from swimming in the water, he couldn't catch a rabbit without Skelley's help. But Skelley trailed along behind them without seeming to care about catching rabbits or where the sun might be. In fact, he got so far behind that Lucinda and Bailey slowed way down to let him catch up. Finally Skelley stopped trying to keep up and lay down on the ground.
"Me thinks the coyotes must have got hold me leg. It's paining me some. The two of ye go on, and after I rest a bit, I'll come along."
"It's not much farther. Just over to those trees. We can find a better place to rest there." Bailey pointed with his nose.
Skelley didn't even raise his head to look. "Aye. I'll be along in a little while."
"What about the adventure?" Bailey said. "You can't give up on that now."
"Aye and it is a fine adventure, lad. I'm not quitting it. I'll be along as soon as me leg rests up a bit."
Lucinda let out a yowl and swatted Bailey. "Stop your nonsense about adventure. This isn't an adventure. It's a disaster, but it's a disaster we're all in together. And if you're going to stay here, the two of us will stay right here with you." Lucinda sat down beside Skelley and started licking the muddy water out of her coat.
"Ye can't stay here, Miss Lucinda. The coyotes might find us and the trees are much too far away."
Lucinda looked up from licking her paw. "We fought the coyotes once. If they find us, we'll just do it again." She began washing herself again.
A bit of the old glint flashed in Skelley's eyes. "I guess you've got me, Miss Lucinda. Ye know I can't let you stay here in the open because for a truth, we may have fought the coyotes but we weren't winning."
"We got away, didn't we?" Lucinda said.
"By the skin of our teeth with a bushel load of luck." Skelley clambered to his feet. "Could be, if we take it slow, I might make it to the trees after all."
They moved so slowly now that Bailey had time to hunt for grasshoppers and to nose over rocks and grab a few crickets. He took some to Skelley, but the old dog shook his head.
"Ye eat them, lad. Me appetite seems to have left me."
(To be continued)
March 30, 1966
Jocie Brooke here excited to be reporting from Hollyhill, Kentucky because it's SPRING BREAK!! No school for a whole week. We almost had to go to school on Monday and Tuesday, but then the Legislature said we didn't have to make up all our snow days. So the superintendent just tacked on a few extra days to keep us in school until June, but we get all week for spring break. And it's supposed to be pretty weather too.
Thank goodness, Aunt Love says spring cleaning can wait until later or I'd be dusting and washing walls all week. But now things are looking up. No homework. No housework. Well, other than the stuff I have to do every day. But I can do that quick and then go help Dad and Wes at the newspaper. Or go visit Miss Sally out on the farm. Or go to the library. So I can read like Jamie in the picture here. Jamie and I talk books all the time. He reads weird stuff like Wes. Science fiction. I like stories with romance or mystery. Or both. I want to read at least three books this week. At least.
Maybe I'll see Jamie around town. Maybe at the library. Then I can ask if he wants to go see Wes and borrow some of his books. Wes has stacks and stacks of books. He says they are like old friends. He can't just throw them away, but he can introduce them to new friends. He'd let Jamie have some of them for sure. Maybe Jamie and I can find a great place to read. And we can talk about what we're reading. You know, a boy who likes to read isn't so bad.
My sister, Tabitha, will laugh if she reads this and say I told you so. But talking to a boy about reading doesn't mean I'm falling in love or anything. Just falling in love with reading. That's all. That's absolutely all!
Still, it might be fun if we both read the same book so we could talk about it. Do you like to talk about the books you read to your friends?
Maybe I'll tell Jamie about the story I'm writing. See if he wants to read it. I don't know if that would be a good idea or not. What if he didn't like it? What if he made fun of it? It's scary letting somebody read what you're making up. Except for you all. I don't mind you reading it because I know you'll be nice and not tell me it's awful. Thank you. Because I don't want to feel all scared to report here from Hollyhill.
So on to the next chapter of Bailey's adventures.
BAILEY'S BUG by Jocie Brooke
(Continued from last time. The whole book is under Bailey's Bug up at the top of the page.)
Chapter 13
Bailey was almost glad when what was left of the barn floating along with them banged into a tree and began crashing down around them. Dodging falling planks was easier than telling Lucinda the hum in his ear was gone.
"Hang on, lad," Skelley called over the crash of the water. "We'll drift away from the mess of it in a minute."
Bailey clung to his board and stared over at Skelley balancing on his narrow plank. He was leaning this way and that guiding it through the debris. Lucinda floated along behind the old dog on her own plank. Her back was arched and her tail pointed straight up to get as far away from the water as she could.
A pole rammed into Bailey's board and knocked him into the water. He dog-paddled like mad to catch up with the plank, but it rushed away from him. Behind him more of the barn crashed down around Skelley and Lucinda. Skelley shifted away from the falling timbers, but a board slapped Lucinda off her perch.
"Lucinda!" Bailey pushed against the water trying to get to her. She wasn't swimming. Her limp body bounced up and down in the water. Bailey paddled harder but the water pushed him the other way.
"I'll get her, lad." Skelley jumped from plank to plank as though the boards were stepping stones. At last he floated on a board right beside Lucinda. The old dog hesitated as his mouth tightened on the painted stick.
For a heartbeat, Bailey wasn't sure Skelley would be able to choose Lucinda over the baton. At last he placed the stick on the plank and clamped his paw on top of it. Then he plucked Lucinda out of the water with his teeth. All was well for a moment, but when he lifted the cat up, her weight threw him a little off balance. The board shot out from under him.
Skelley's painted stick flew up in the air and splashed down into the water. Skelley watched it float away from him with large, sad eyes, but he kept his hold on the scruff of Lucinda's neck.
"I'll get it," Bailey shouted.
With no sign of hearing him, Skelley turned and swam toward the creek bank.
Bailey swam back and forth, waiting for the stick to float past him. Bits of wood were everywhere, but none of them was the right bit of wood. It must have slipped past without him seeing it in murky water.
He hated to give up, but if he didn't make for the bank, he might just float forever. Like Skelley's stick.
The water had carried him far past the spot where Skelley had gone ashore with Lucinda. Bailey had to rest on the dry ground for a while before his legs could carry him again. He hurried back along the stream to find his friends.
When at last he spotted them, he gave a little bark of joy to see Lucinda sitting up. She didn't look too good though with her head drooping down. Skelley's head drooped even lower and he was shaking so that the old dog's bones had to be clattering.
Bailey caught his breath. "I couldn't find it, Skelley. I'm sorry."
"That be all right, lad." Skelley didn't look up at Bailey. "I knew it was gone, for a truth, the minute the water gobbled it up."
(To be continued)
March 23, 1966
Jocie Brooke here reporting from Hollyhill, Kentucky where not much happens in March. That's for sure. But it is spring and Miss Sally's chickens are getting cute little feathers and it's warm enough for me to ride my bicycle.
Leigh and I have even been digging up a new flower bed. She wants to plant tulips. She says she loves tulips. She never met my Mama Mae, but if she had, Mama Mae would have loved her because she makes my daddy laugh.
That's a good thing. To marry somebody who makes you laugh. I want to do that too. Someday. Not in any hurry at all. So far every boy I've met is way weird. Leigh says I'll change my thinking on that when I get older, but gee whiz, I'm already 14.
Lots of girls my age are walking the halls at high school holding hands with some boy. I'm thinking it would be real hard to carry a whole armload of books while you had to hold somebody's hand. Leigh laughed when I told her that. She said the boys were supposed to be carrying the books for the girls. Yeah, like that would happen for me.
Do you like Roger Miller? We watched the Grammy show the other night. Aunt Love said it was all foolishness, but Leigh likes music and records. She has this record of Roger Miller. He won a bunch of Grammy awards for "King of the Road." We got to watch the award show on television and see him sing that song. It's a good thing he wasn't singing "Chug a Lug." Aunt Love would have probably made us turn it off. But I think that song is funny. I can think about it without it making me want to take any chugs out of a moonshine jug. That would a crazy thing to do.
I like the way Roger Miller sings funny songs. One of the songs on the record is "You Can't Roller Skate in a Buffalo Herd." Have you ever heard that one? It says you can't take a shower in a parakeet cage and you can't take a swim in a baseball pool and can't go fishing in a watermelon patch along with other crazy things, but that you can be happy if you've a mind to. I like that. What other silly songs do you know?
Guess it's time to see how Bailey, Skelley and Lucinda are making out. We left them in a pretty big mess last week. Skelley had ended up in the middle of a bunch of coyotes before he was swept away by the flood. Lucinda was on a board floating along and you know how Lucinda hates getting wet. Let's see what Bailey does.
BAILEY'S BUG by Jocie Brooke
(Continued from last week. You can read it all under the title up top of this report.)
Bailey had almost given up hope when Skelley's head popped up out of the water in front of him. The old dog's ear was bleeding, but his eyes were full of fire as if the fight with the coyotes had been the best adventure yet. The painted stick floated up beside him.
Skelley caught it with his chin and pulled it back toward him. "My leap fell a bit short, Bailey me lad, but those old boys weren't so tough."
Bailey felt like he'd just been given a whole bag of dog food. He barked and jumped straight up, splashing water everywhere.
"Stop that!" Lucinda ordered. "You're going to drown me." The cat jumped away from Bailey to a different board. "The water's getting deeper."
Lucinda was right. The water swept Bailey off his feet. He paddled to stay beside Skelley but the water kept pushing him away.
"Grab a board, lad. Best try to ride out this flood. Swimming will take too much out of you in this current." Skelley clambered up on a board and balanced there easy as can be.
Bailey tried to do the same, but the board tipped and dumped him back into the water.
"Try to sit light in the middle, lad." Skelley nudged the board back toward him. "You have to shift when the board shifts.
This time Bailey made it up on the board, but when he shifted, he ended up dumped in the water again.
"Shift the other way, lad. The other way. For a truth, you'd have a hard time riding a pony."
Bailey tried to get on the plank again. He fell off again. He was so tired it all seemed like a dream. The flood. The barn breaking up and floating around him. The planks in the water. Skelley floating away from him. He couldn't see Lucinda. His legs felt like wood. He couldn't get up on the plank. He'd just have to go wherever the water took him.
His head went under. It was quieter under the water. Easier. But he needed air. He pushed up above the surface and Lucinda was right in front of him. Her green eyes were fierce.
"You crazy dog! Get on that board before you drown."
Bailey pushed up out of the water and got his front legs up over the plank. He didn't try to stand up. Just hung on with his stomach on the board and his paws trailing along in the water. He didn't dare fall off. Not with Lucinda glaring at him.
"Way to go, lad." Skelley shook his painted stick at Bailey. "There be more than one way to ride a pony, I'm thinking."
Bailey clung to the board, panting. It wasn't so bad floating along like that. He could move his paws a bit and guide himself through the water a bit. He'd never had to ride out a flood before, but they were all still together even if Skelley did look a little worse for his fight with the coyotes. The old dog's ear would have a new scar for sure.
He caught his breath and paddled a little closer to Lucinda. "What are we going to do now?"
"Don't ask me!" Lucinda snapped. She was wet all over. "This is your adventure. You're the one with the bug in your ear."
(To be continued)
March 16, 1966
Jocie Brooke here reporting from Hollyhill, Kentucky. It's four days until the calendar says spring. Then it will be a while longer before I'll see any new dogwood blooms, but I can think about them coming. And all the other flowers too.
Back when Mama Mae was still living, she would be out in the yard as soon as it was warm enough to dig in the ground so she could start planning all the stuff she wanted to plant. She planted some of it in the fall. Things like tulip bulbs. I miss Mama Mae's tulips. Dad says I could buy some bulbs and plant some of my own, but Mama Mae's were always so cheerful and special.
Before she died when I was nine, I would get off the school bus there and in the springtime, those tulips would be waving at me. Happy to see me the way Mama Mae always was. It's good when people you love are happy to see you.
See, it was never that way with my mother. I don't think she was ever glad to see me. But Mama Mae was. She would have a hug waiting for me and some kind of treat. She sometimes made this icing stuff out of confectionery sugar and butter and milk. Then she'd put it between graham crackers. She called them poor folks' sandwich cookies, but I felt rich when I was sitting on the porch beside her with a graham cracker cookie in my hand and looking out at her tulips. Sometimes I pretended those tulips were little girls all wanting to play with me.
Mama Mae had dogwood trees too. A pink one and a white one. She told me that the dark spots on the center of the ends of the petals stood for the Lord's blood shed on a cross. The petals make a kind of cross shape too. Mama Mae always had ways of making the Bible come to life. I guess she was so good at loving and helping folks know more about the Bible that the Lord decided he needed her help up in Heaven. For the longest time, I had a hard time believing the good Lord might know best about that. Seemed like He would have had plenty of help up in heaven without my grandmother. I needed Mama Mae. But Dad says the Lord always knows best and helps us through every hard spot.
That's where I left Bailey and Lucinda last episode posting. In a hard spot with coyotes surrounding them! Let's see if they can get out of that trouble without losing too much fur.
BAILEY'S BUG by Jocie Brooke
(When we last left Bailey, Lucinda and Skelley, they were surrounded by very unfriendly coyotes while the rain was beating down outside and flooding the barn they were in.)
"What now?" Skelley asked.
Bailey wasn't sure whether it was the baton in the old dog's mouth that made his words sound so shaky or whether it was the coyotes edging ever closer to them
"I don't know," Bailey said. "Do you know some kind of circus trick that might make the coyotes run away or decide we are friends?"
"For a truth, I know all sorts of circus tricks, but none that would entertain a coyote, I fear." The baton rattled in the old dog's mouth, and he clenched his teeth tighter on it. "Old Asaph's not here for us to leap up on and ride away. Besides, even if standing on me head would help, I might just drown what with the water getting deeper around us. Sorry, lad."
Bailey looked up at Lucinda.
"Don't look at me." Lucinda spat out the words. "Even cats can't make coyotes disappear."
The coyotes raised their noses toward Lucinda and sniffed. They started yipping and yammering between themselves.
"I don't like the sound of that." Bailey shook his head until his ears flapped. The water was getting deeper under his belly and pushing him toward the coyotes. He needed to think of something. Fast. He gave Skelley a sideways look. "Maybe you could leap over top of them, Skelley, and get away."
"Maybe I could, lad, but where would that leave you and Miss Lucinda?"
"They can't get Lucinda up in the barn."
Bailey ran his tongue out around his mouth. "And if you fly over top of them, they could be so surprised they won't notice me slipping past them." Bailey didn't believe that would happen, but they had to try something.
"It's been many a moon since I made such a leap. It might be that I will just land smack in the middle of them."
Bailey looked at the coyotes again with their narrow eyes and snarling mouths. "If you do, I'll jump in there with you and we'll fight them off." Somehow Bailey managed not to let his voice shake. "They aren't so tough and we have to try something. The water is getting deeper."
The water was brushing his belly now.
Lucinda crept across a pole until she was directly over their heads. "You can do it, Skelley. Listen to the music in your head and remember how you did leaps for your master."
Skelley looked up at Lucinda. Then he tightened his mouth around the painted stick, shut his eyes, and stepped back a few steps. His head swayed back and forth as if he really were hearing music. Then he splashed through the water and bounded up into the air.
The old dog sprang so high that for one heart-stopping moment, Bailey thought he was going to make it clear over the coyotes. But all of the sudden, Skelley stalled. He frantically scrambled at the air with his long, bony legs, but it didn't help. He plummeted down on top of the biggest coyote.
With a silence more terrible than any amount of yips and yowls, the other four coyotes piled on top of Skelley. Bailey let go of the ground with his toenails and the he was swept into the middle of the melee. Up above him, Lucinda was making a terrible snarling noise unlike anything he'd ever heard come out of her mouth. She leaped down onto the back of one of the coyotes and dug in her claws. The coyote yowled and tried to knock off the cat.
Bailey wasn't exactly sure what happened next. He kept trying to see Lucinda and Skelley, but with the coyotes biting and pulling on him, he couldn't. Teeth snapped. Mouths growled. And a surge of water pushed him off his feet. He'd be a goner if he couldn't get up on his feet.
All at once, the barn creaked and groaned just the way the house back in the city had done when the bulldozer pushed on it. Bailey scrambled up to his feet and looked around for the yellow monster, but there was nothing but brown water.
"It's coming down." Lucinda leaped away from the coyotes to land on a broad plank.
She floated past Bailey as more boards raining down around them. With an awful shudder, what was left of the barn shifted and started drifting on the water.
The coyotes forgot all about Bailey as they howled and took off for dry ground. They disappeared through a hole in the side of the barn.
Bailey looked around frantically for Skelley, but all he could see was muddy water. No old dog. Bailey dodged a plank as he fought against the current back to where Skelley had disappeared into the coyotes.
"Where is he?" Lucinda leaped from board to board back toward Bailey.
"I can't see him, but he's got to be here. He's got to." Bailey stuck his head under the water, but he couldn't see the old dog. He popped back out of the water and yelled, "Skelley."
Lucinda was yelling too.
(To be continued)
Remember, the whole story so far is under the Pages title up top of my report here.
Thanks, everybody, for reading. Have you ever been in a hard spot?
March 10, 1966
Jocie Brooke reporting from Hollyhill, Kentucky. Well, actually not reporting. I caught a cold from Cassady at church. Now I can't do anything but sneeze and keep tissues close by. I didn't even go to school yesterday. Even Aunt Love admitted that I must be sick. I am going to school tomorrow even in my nose does look like Rudolf. You know that red-nosed reindeer. But I don't want to get too far behind or I'll be doing homework for a month. Yuck! That wouldn't leave any time for writing.
Colds are no fun. What do you do to feel better? Aunt Love says I need some chicken broth. Another yuck! But Leigh brought me some chicken noodle soup home and that's not bad. Then Aunt Love says I have to smear Vicks salve on my chest. That stuff smells awful, but I guess it does help me breath.
I'm going to bed and pull my covers up over my head and stay there. Well, until I have to sneeze and blow my nose anyway. Maybe I'll feel like reading later.
What do you do when you have a cold?
Maybe I'll have more of Bailey's story written by next week. If I can quit sneezing.
